Thursday, October 4, 2012

WOAH! I cannot even begin to explain how delicious this recipe was! The flavors were so.... delicious! I can barely form words remembering back to how much I really liked this recipe! I will say that part of what made this dish so exquisite was the Basil Pearled Cous-cous that I accompanied with the chicken. The flavors together were just so scrumptious! I will definitely only make this dish with the Near East Basil Pearled Cous-cous from now on! This dish was so creamy and delicious! Of course I used extra mushrooms because I like to have some mushrooms with every bite! I definitely recommend this dish!
There is a little alcohol used in this dish. My husband doesn't like dishes that incorporate alcohol so I made sure to allow the alcohol flavor to cook off for a while longer than the recipe suggested, so my sauce wasn't necessarily as sauce-y as compared with where I got the recipe from, but I thought it made it richer and more flavorful. And, score!, my husband said he really couldn't taste the alcohol much at all, which he is particularly nit-picky about and able to pick out even when I haven't mentioned that there is alcohol in a dish, so for him to say that was huge. Also, if you would prefer not to use alcohol at all, I would just substitute it out for some chicken broth and it would be just as tasty.
So, here we go!

Ingredients:
3 T butter
1/2 C chopped shallots, or minced onions (I couldn't find my shallots until I finally relented and used onion, cause of course that's when you find what you're looking for!)
10-12oz mushrooms of your choice (I used button)
1 t fresh parsley
1 C dry white white or dry vermouth (I know others would kill me, but I just use the cooking wine that can be found by the vinegar in the store. We don't drink so I don't have bottles of wine on hand.)
2/3 C heavy whipping cream
3 T fresh sage
1 T olive oil
2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts, pounded out to 1/3 inch or so
salt and pepper

Directions:

In a medium saucepan, melt the butter on medium heat. Add onions and sweat for a minute. Add the mushrooms, parsley and a pinch of salt and saute for approx. 10 minutes or so until they begin to get all soft and yummy-butter filled.

Add the wine and deglaze the pan with a wooden spoon by scraping the bottom of the pan to get up all the yummy bits from the onions and mushrooms. Add the cream (make sure your heat isn't too high so as not to curdle the cream, you want to slowly bring it to a higher heat). Now, bring it to a low boil and cook the sauce down for approx 10-15 minutes to allow it to thicken (You want it to be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon).

White the sauce is reducing, begin the pearled cous-cous in a small sauce pan.
Then, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high. Sprinkle the chicken breasts with salt and pepper and add to the pan and sear chicken on each side for 3-4 minutes, do not disturb while it cooks. It will gain a lovely caramelized color from the hot pan.

Now, back to the sauce. Add the chopped sage to the sauce, along with a pinch of salt and pepper (make sure you taste the sauce first to see how much salt you actually need to add).

I served this dish by first putting a scoop of pearled cous-cous on each plate, and topping it with the lovely seared chicken breast, and topped it off with a healthy scoop of the mushroom sage sauce. Then, garnish with a pretty sprinkle of parsley!

Then, fall out of your chair as the flavors burst in your mouth! Then, get back up and finish the rest of your dinner! You're welcome!